PRACTICAL, STEP-BY-STEP
AI Workflows for Christian Work
AI is a research assistant. Doctrinal authority rests with scripture, the historic creeds, and the human teachers the Lord has placed in your life. Use AI to speed the searching, never to replace the deciding.
"Let all things be done decently and in order."
— 1 Corinthians 14:40 (KJV)
Sermon Preparation
Using AI to accelerate sermon prep without surrendering doctrinal control.
- Begin with prayer and your own reading of the passage in KJV.
- Ask AI to outline the passage. Compare the outline to your own observations.
- Ask AI for cross-references. Verify each one in KJV before using it.
- Ask AI to surface historical interpretations (Augustine, Chrysostom, the Reformers). Read the actual source where possible.
- Draft your sermon yourself. Use AI only for proofreading and one-line illustration ideas.
- Read the final sermon aloud and pray over it before delivery.
🚩 Watch for:
- AI quoting a saint without a source — verify or omit.
- AI offering a 'fresh' interpretation no one in church history shares — likely wrong.
- AI smoothing over a hard verse — don't let it soften what scripture means to sting.
Family Devotional Preparation
Building a 10-minute family devotional time around a single verse.
- Choose a verse (KJV) — perhaps from this week's lectionary or a chosen book of the Bible.
- Ask AI for two child-level questions and one adult-level question on the verse.
- Ask AI for one short prayer that captures the verse's spirit. Edit it yourself.
- Print or write out the verse so a child can see it during the time.
- Read the verse aloud. Discuss the questions. Pray together. Close with the Aaronic blessing.
🚩 Watch for:
- AI introducing concepts the verse does not actually contain — keep the discussion anchored to the actual words.
- AI offering prayers that sound vaguely spiritual but not specifically Christian — rewrite in plain Christian language.
Scripture Memorization
Using AI to help memorize a passage faster.
- Choose the passage in KJV.
- Ask AI to break the passage into small phrases (4-7 words each).
- Ask AI for three progressively-harder fill-in-the-blank versions.
- Practice the phrases aloud. Then the fill-in-the-blanks. Then the full passage.
- Review tomorrow. Review next week. Review next month. (AI can generate the review prompts.)
🚩 Watch for:
- AI accidentally paraphrasing instead of preserving the KJV exactly. Check carefully.
Comparing Translations
Understanding how different English translations render a contested verse.
- Identify the verse and the question (a single word, a phrase, a sentence structure).
- Ask AI to display the KJV, RV, ASV, ESV, NIV, NRSV, and CSB side by side.
- Ask AI to point out where the translations differ and why.
- Ask AI to give the underlying Greek or Hebrew word with a brief gloss.
- Form your own judgment. Read any commentaries your tradition trusts before deciding.
🚩 Watch for:
- AI making confident claims about 'the original meaning' — Greek lexicography is contested. Be humble.
Small Group Discussion Questions
Building a discussion guide for a small group meeting.
- Choose the passage (KJV) and the audience (newer believers, mature believers, mixed).
- Ask AI for ten questions, ranging from observation ('What does the text actually say?') to application ('How does this shape this week?').
- Read each question and remove or rewrite any that don't fit your group's spiritual maturity.
- Add at least one question of your own that no one but you would think to ask.
- Bring the guide to the group along with your own prepared thoughts.
🚩 Watch for:
- AI generating questions that lead toward a non-traditional conclusion. Notice the direction the questions push.
Reading the Church Fathers
Using AI to navigate a long Patristic text.
- Choose the work (e.g., Augustine's Confessions, Book 7).
- Ask AI for a brief outline of the book — chapters, key arguments, key passages.
- Read the book yourself, with the outline as a map.
- When you encounter a hard sentence, ask AI for a paraphrase. Verify the paraphrase against any English translation you trust.
- Keep a notebook of what you actually read. AI summaries are not a substitute for reading.
🚩 Watch for:
- AI confidently summarizing what a father 'meant' — paraphrase is interpretive. Always compare with the original.
Building a Family Rule of Life
Designing a daily and weekly rhythm of prayer and reading for your household.
- Describe your household to AI — ages, schedules, traditions.
- Ask AI to propose a simple weekly rhythm: morning prayer, evening prayer, Saturday or Sunday Sabbath practice, weekly memory verse.
- Edit the rhythm yourself. Cut anything that won't last more than two weeks.
- Write the rhythm on paper. Stick it on the fridge.
- Review the rhythm after one month. Adjust.
🚩 Watch for:
- AI proposing overly elaborate rhythms. The fathers of the desert prayed seven times daily — most families can't. Start small.
Answering Difficult Questions From Children
Using AI as a sounding board when a child asks a hard theological question.
- Write the child's exact question down (e.g., 'Why does God let bad things happen?').
- Ask AI for three age-appropriate ways to answer the question.
- Compare the answers to what scripture says and what your own tradition teaches.
- Pick the version closest to your tradition and adapt it to your child's words.
- Tell your child you took the question seriously. That is half the answer.
🚩 Watch for:
- AI giving a saccharine answer that doesn't engage the real difficulty. Children are wise; underestimate them at your peril.
- AI defaulting to a soft theodicy that doesn't match how scripture handles suffering (Job, Lamentations, Christ on the cross).